Since issue 100 Negan has gone through many changes to become a better person. Issue 174 documents that final change as he comes to face a decision he made in the past. That decision comes in the form of Maggie who has tracked him down with the full intention of killing him to obtain justice for Glenn. Yet to the surprise of everyone Negan and Maggie choose to go their separate ways as they both move on from what has occurred in the past.
The Good:
The showdown that has been brewing for 73 issues has finally occurred between Negan and Maggie. After the Whisperers War Rick has let Negan go, so long as he won’t come back. Negan, who is now free, has chosen to settle down in a small neighborhood near to where his wife was buried. Unknown to him, Maggie had Dante follow and mark where he had settled. With the Hilltop construction underway Maggie has decided that it is time she got justice for Glenn and kill Negan. Maggie, one day, joined by Dante sneaks up on Negan holding a gun revealing that she has been waiting for 3 years to kill him. Much to her surprise Negan realizes that his actions have caused all of this and he regrets doing what he did to Glenn and several others. He further reveals that since the outbreak he became progressively colder as a person due to all the people around him dying. This forced him to become a killer as a means to protect the 20 people who liked him as he honestly believed that was the right thing to do. It was not until Rick came around that he realized that there was another way on how to survive by helping one another out rather than destroying each other. By revealing this it is clear that Negan has changed as a character; he realizes that his ways were flawed. Furthermore, Negan shows how he has changed as he asks Maggie to kill him as it will grant her satisfaction for killing Glenn while ending his suffering of being alone. This shows that Negan has evolved as a character as he has developed empathy for other people and for himself. Much like in the tradition of The Walking Dead Robert Kirkman throws us a curve ball. Maggie chooses not to extract justice onto Negan, but rather allows him to live, as she wants him to live with his choices. By doing this she is revealing that despite all the anger she has been harboring she is finally letting it go so that she can move on with her life. At the same time this also allows Negan to move on as he is allowed to have a new start and put his past behind him.
The Bad:
Recently The Walking Dead has released Here is Negan, a graphic novel about how Negan became the ruthless leader he was. Issue 174 heavily relies on the information from that graphic novel to fully convey who Negan was, became, and transformed into. Without that back story, you cannot understand how much he has transformed as a person in the last several years. By relying on this graphic novel, the comic limits the impact that this issue could have had if all of that information was disclosed in several issues leading up to this point.
The Verdict:
The Maggie-Negan showdown has been brewing for several years and it should have been executed more definitively. The comic relied too much on Negan’s backstory, which was told in Here’s Negan, to establish how he became a ruthless leader and the actions he took. This proves to be a problem as many fans have not picked up the graphic novel and are unfamiliar with his backstory and as a result miss out on the amazing build up the issue has created. The comic blows a perfect set up to end an arc and allow for two characters to move on with their lives by not providing enough information about Negan’s backstory in the one issue that needs it most.
